Wade Wilson

Deadpool is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in New Mutants #98 (December 1990).

In his comic book appearances, Deadpool is initially depicted as a supervillain of the New Mutants and X-Force, though later stories would portray him as an antihero.

Deadpool is the alter ego of Wade Wilson, a disfigured Canadian mercenary with superhuman regenerative healing abilities.

He is known for his tendency to joke incessantly and break the fourth wall for humorous effect.

The character's popularity has seen him featured in numerous forms of other media.

Created by artist/writer Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool made his first appearance in the pages of The New Mutants #98 cover dated Feb. 1991.

According to Nicieza, Liefeld came up with the character's visual design and name, and Nicieza himself came up with the character's speech mannerisms.

Liefeld's favorite comic title before X-Men was Avengers, which featured weapons like Captain America's shield, Thor's hammer and Hawkeye's bow and arrow.

Because of this, he decided to give weapons to his new characters as well.

Liefeld, also a fan of the Teen Titans comics, showed his new character to then-writer Fabian Nicieza.

Upon seeing the costume and noting his characteristics (killer with super agility), Nicieza contacted Liefeld, saying "this is Deathstroke from Teen Titans".

Nicieza gave Deadpool the real name of "Wade Wilson" as an inside-joke to being "related" to "Slade Wilson", Deathstroke.

Other inspirations were Spider-Man, Wolverine and Snake Eyes.

Liefeld states: "Wolverine and Spider-Man were the two properties I was competing with at all times. I didn't have those, I didn't have access to those. I had to make my own Spider-Man and Wolverine. That's what Cable and Deadpool were meant to be, my own Spider-Man and my own Wolverine."

"G.I. Joe was my first obsession. Those were The Toys in the sandbox with me, kung fu grip, Eagle Eye, I had them all. G.I. Joe is a world of characters that I have always aspired to participate in. Snake Eyes was a profound influence on my creating Deadpool."

Both Deadpool and Cable were also meant to be tied into Wolverine's history already from the start, as Liefeld describes: "Wolverine was my guy. If I could tie anything into Wolverine, I was winning."

Like Wolverine, Deadpool is (or is thought to be) Canadian.

The original story had him joining the Weapon X program after being kicked out of the U.S. Army Special Forces and given an artificial healing factor based on Wolverine's thanks to Dr. Emrys Killebrew, one of the head scientists.

In his first appearance, Deadpool is hired by Tolliver to attack Cable and the New Mutants.

After subsequently appearing in X-Force as a recurring character, Deadpool began making guest appearances in a number of different Marvel Comics titles such as The Avengers, Daredevil, and Heroes for Hire.

In 1993, the character received his own miniseries, titled The Circle Chase, written by Fabian Nicieza and pencilled by Joe Madureira.

It was a relative success and Deadpool starred in a second, self-titled miniseries written in 1994 by Mark Waid, pencilled by Ian Churchill, and inked by Jason Temujin Minor and Bud LaRosa.

Waid later commented, "Frankly, if I'd known Deadpool was such a creep when I agreed to write the mini-series, I wouldn't have done it. Someone who hasn't paid for their crimes presents a problem for me."

In 1997, Deadpool was given his own ongoing title, the first volume of Deadpool.

Deadpool became an action comedy parody of the cosmic drama, antihero-heavy comics of the time.

The series firmly established his supporting cast, including his prisoner/den mother Blind Al and his best friend Weasel.

The ongoing series gained cult popularity for its unorthodox main character, its balance of angst and pop culture slapstick and the character became less of a villain, though the element of his moral ambiguity remained.

Deadpool lasted until issue #69, at which point it was relaunched as a new title with a similar character called Agent X in 2002.

This occurred during a line-wide revamp of X-Men related comics, with Cable becoming Soldier X and X-Force becoming X-Statix.

It appeared that Deadpool was killed in an explosion fighting the supervillain Black Swan.

Deadpool's manager Sandi Brandenberg later founded Agency X with a mysterious man called Alex Hayden, who took the name dubbed Agent X.

Deadpool later returned to the series, which would conclude with issues 13–15.

In the 2004 series Cable & Deadpool, he refers to his own scarred appearance as "Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar Pei".

Deadpool's next starring appearance came in 2004 with the launch of Cable & Deadpool written by Fabian Nicieza, where Deadpool became partnered with his former enemy, Cable, teaming up in various adventures.

This title was cancelled with issue #50 and replaced by a new Cable series in March 2008.

Deadpool then appeared briefly in the Wolverine: Origins title by writer Daniel Way before Way and Paco Medina launched another Deadpool title in September 2008.

Reynolds himself would eventually portray the character in the X-Men film series, appearing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), Deadpool (2016), and its sequel Deadpool 2 (2018).

Reynolds first familiarized himself with the character via Cable & Deadpool #2, which explicitly referenced the actor.

He is set to reprise the role in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.